Assimilation

beginning another chapter of my life now

Anthony Su <groh.hisam@gmail.com>	9:50 AM (0 minutes ago)
to Aline

This is an exciting morning. Shortly after I got up from bed and getting ready for another new routine of translating the sermon, I ran across a branding idea that open a new way to the ways of how I do many things in my 9th inning, which means the rest and the ending chapter of the life.

I would say this is related to the sermon-translation because of the title "no longer strangers". One of the new things I picked up since I entered the border of USA is the concept of assimilation. It is not a new concept to me as a sociology major in college. It captured my attention as I started tasting it as an "assimilatee".

I learned that the concept was quick important to the metropolitan churches I visited in NYC, where I participated the church life of a Manhattan church of United Methodist, singing in the choir.

The new era is characterized by the new methods of assimilation in a church that I ran across this morning. This is somehow related to what I mentioned before about nobody ever asked me about what I did for a living. Most of the people knowing me know what I did after work but again nobody brought it up and discuss with me. I understand that this phenomenon is common among the aging people, especially those who live alone, since the time I tried to concentrate my study on the social work around the senior citizens.  Most the senior people could not get partner, not even listener in their daily living for the same reason I am showing right now because of the lengthy expression.

To make it short and quicker the new idea is to utilize the special methods of "writing reference letter" I developed while I served in Taiwan for 12 years between 1997 and 2012. I claimed that I could write reference letter for anybody as long as a chance for conversation is available. Now I can use this method to help congregation live up the missions of spreading the gospel through assimilation practices.

What I plan to do at this moment is to bring up conversation pieces for everyone in our congregation life, one at a time perhaps.

1. compile of list of topics and write the interpretation to publicize in the church newsletter as well as keeping hard copies available in the fellowship hall. The list would including something like, the interesting or unforgettable moments in your life; the special experiences of growing up, changes, in your past; the new thing you have found in this church; the practices new to you that you have tried in this church; the special attributes or valuable traits of this church;  etc.
2. Interview church participants, new and old, to gather information about individuals, while learning the art of assimilation through "striking up an conversation" and "keep the conversation going".
3. Take portrait photographs of those interviewed if they agreed to be photographed by me. (I have a special method of painless shot of smiling portraits. It would be over before the subject is ready.)
4. Capture the conversation in a blog for continuous processing and development. 
5. Quote the captured information in the newsletter, one at a time, in question form without mentioning the name, nor the portrait, asking the readers to guess and reply with their guessed name.
6. Encourage the readers of the newsletter to find the subject being introduced and find out more about the person as a way of assimilating one another into the family of church.
7. Encourage the readers, especially the pastors of other churches, of the newsletter to try it in other churches. (I have included some mailboxes from the church directory of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. I will continue to add more mailboxes. Perhaps I would add some from the directory of the GLP, as my way to contribute to the GLP, which is one important part of my life in St. Louis.)

Now I will concentrate on translation for a couple days and wait for the information from the person who has inspired me of this new integration of my work, either through emailing or face-to-face conversation.

Hisam 9:49 2019/10/9